1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains generally to the field of digital processing, more particularly to the processing of question and answer information relating to a speaker and an audience.
2. Background of the Invention
Celebrity interviews are typically conducted by a program host (interviewer) who asks questions and interacts with the celebrity to guide the conversation on behalf of the audience. Throughout the interview, the audience, for whom the entire show is produced, cannot participate in the dialog. It is up to the interviewer to figure out the relevant issues of interest to the audience and formulate appropriate questions. Success of the show depends on the interviewer knowing the subject and knowing the audience. There is no mechanism for immediate audience input or feedback as the interview progresses.
In some situations, the interview may be staged before a studio audience to bring audience reaction into the program. The interviewer can gauge the success of a particular line of questioning by eye contact and body language of the audience. The audience may react by applause, laughter, booing and such, but if there is a burning question within the audience, there is typically no way to get the question voiced. Not all program situations allow a studio audience. In such cases the interviewer and celebrity depend entirely on their own skills, without real time feedback, throughout the conduct of the interview.
One attempt to include the audience is by call-in from a few selected callers. A live call-in requires skill on the part of the interviewer, who must now handle a potentially uncooperative caller as well as the celebrity. The unknown caller also presents risk to the network for questions that are irrelevant or of limited interest and thus a waste of time, or for questions that present controversies beyond the intended scope of the program. Further, the live call-in process takes only a very small random sample of audience interests and does not give the interviewer or program directors a direct feel or measure of the major interests of the audience.
A further issue is that in some situations, a particular audience member may have a significant question that the particular audience member feels is of little interest to other audience members. The question would likely never get asked, even though, in fact many other audience members may have similar questions. There is also no mechanism to answer an individual with a particular question.
Another method for getting audience feedback is to conduct a poll. Polls, however, can only answer simple questions, are subject to bias in the question, and cannot articulate a new question.
Other types of interviews, and related speaker/audience situations also suffer from similar issues—nightly news, documentaries, sports interviews, political interviews, seminars, and classroom education.
Thus, there is a need for an interview process that allows more direct audience participation without wasting time or risking adverse questions, a process that better addresses audience concerns and improve speaker contact and communication with the audience.